Potato study shows drone surveillance can boost natural results.
Hailed as “the beginning of a new era” and “a revolutionary way to improve agriculture,” artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to monitor potato harvests and discover which soil microbes best feed crops. This novel AI tool also can expose past (and current) technological follies and hazards in agriculture.
Drone-Farmed Potatoes
Potato researchers collected data measuring the amount of bacteria and fungi on seed potato stock, then planted the seed potatoes over a large area. As the potato crop developed, drones were employed to survey 240 test fields from on high, measuring growth rates for comparison. The two sets of data – the bacteria and fungi types and prevalence and the growth rates of the plants over successive seasons – were melded,…
